1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to creation and definition of graphical icons in graphical user interfaces, and more particularly, to a method for automatically defining icons.
2. Description of the Related Art
Graphical user interfaces (UI) are a predominant way for users to interact with software. UIs primarily consist of a plurality of graphical icons representing specific modules (e.g., functions, objects, etc.) of the software. Simplicity and functionality of UIs, and more specifically their icons, has contributed to dramatic increase in their popularity and their usage. UIs have even been implemented in enterprise level software.
Currently, software developers that create software packages consisting of multiple products, such as enterprise infrastructure management software, generally produce different icon sets for each of the products, even though the icons represent the same software modules. For instance, a “Zoom In” function within one product would be represented by an icon having a “+” within a circle, while in another product would be represented by an icon in shape of a looking glass. Different icon sets make it difficult for users of the software to interpret and learn the UIs of these products, since the same modules are represented by different icons. In addition, use of different icons to represent similar modules makes the icons less recognizable and less intuitive thereby reducing their utility in UIs.
Therefore, there is a need for a method to automatically define icons representing objects during software development based on the objects' functionality to ensure universal and/or consistent and minimal spanning icon coverage. This method would also eliminate duplicate icons and provide for more recognizable icons which are more easily learned by the users.